Franciscan Friars first came to North America long
before Saint Bonaventure's College and Seminary was founded and are known to
have accompanied Christopher Columbus on his expeditions. Wherever they
traveled, they built churches and schools. They established the first public school
(1524) and the first college (1536) in America.

The Diocese of Buffalo was
created in 1847. It consisted of 16 counties with only 16
priests and 16 churches.
In 1848, Nicholas
Devereux, his wife, Mary
Devereux, his sons,
John and Thomas and Bishop John
Timon created a missionary and benevolent society. This organization
played an important role in the early history of the college in that it
was given the title to the pro

In 1851, they
built St. Philip Neri Church in Ellicottville, but did not have
a priest to run it.
Because of the lack of priests in the area they decided to bring Franciscans to the land that
Nicholas Devereux had purchased.

In
1854, Bishop Timon andNicholas Devereux traveled to Europe to
get permission from the pope to establish a community of friars in the
new Buffalo diocese. He directed them to the Irish College of Saint
Isidore, where Father Pamphilus da Magliano was teaching.

Father Pamphilus,whose name can also be found spelled as Panfilo or Pamfilo, wanted very much to
do missionary work in America and finally had the chance to devote
himself to his dream.

On January 4, 1855, Bishop John Timon
and Fr. Venantius a Celano, Minister General
of the Franciscan Order, signed an
agreement by which the Franciscans accepted
an invitation to send missionaries
from Italy to Allegany, New York.

This agreement
stated that three priests and
one lay brother would go, and that
Nicholas Devereux would give 200 acres
of land and $5,000 to build a monastery in
the new diocese. The bishop
would provide the friars with a house near a church where the community would be
established. When naming the first friars to come to Allegany, Father Adalbert Callahan said, "Their names are
worthy of being inscribed in letters of gold: Father Pamphilus da Magliano,
Father Sixtus da Gagliano, Father Samuel da Prezza, and Brother Salvator da
Manarola."

Group of first Friars (Fr. Pamphilus
5th from the right)

On May 5,
1855, the 3 friars and Brother Salvator received
Pope Pius IX's blessing and departed
from Rome for the US, where they arrived in
New York on June 20. After 12 years in the United States, Father Pamphilus was
recalled to Rome in 1867 because of misjudgment made by his superiors. Father
Diomede Falconio was then placed in charge of the college and seminary.